New England Trifest Recap

This race was something of an impulse purchase.  Joe and I were having a random weeknight dinner at California Pizza Kitchen not long after Escape the Cape.  I started talking about wanting to have more open water experience before Racine, and Joe suggested we could go up to Maine, and asked if there were any other "practice" races I could sign up for.  I mentioned the New England Tri Fest, but that I had ruled it out as too far away and too much of a production.  Joe pulled out his phone, looked up Fairlee, VT on a map, and after noticing that it was very close to Dartmouth (where he spent his grad school years), said "oh, we can do this."  So I signed up for the race right there, from my phone.

Pre-Race:
The race was Sunday morning, with packet pickup open on Saturday.  I was very excited to visit Dartmouth/Hanover/etc. for the first time, so we decided to leave Saturday morning and stay until Monday morning.  This meant finding a dog sitter for Klaus (so far so good with Rover and DogVacay).  I was a little nervous about how he would do in a house with a) a tall guy (his least favorite subset of human) and b) a male dog who is both older and smaller than he is, but the sitter couple seemed great, so I went for it.  I decided to drop Klaus off on Friday night to give us more flexibility on Saturday morning, and so that he would have a night with the new sitter while I was still in town, just in case he had any trouble.  Joe suggested that we take advantage of the puppy sitting and check out that night's Red Sox game, which was definitely a good call.

Go Sox!

Saturday, after a huge breakfast from our favorite breakfast spot, some Tour watching, and a lot of packing, we were finally on the road around lunch time.  We drove straight to the race site, where I picked up my race packet and checked out the transition area.  I was a little intimidated by the standard-issue bike racks (compared to the special easy racks used at Escape), but figured I would just follow everyone else.  I was very tempted to ask for a red swim cap used to designate "nervous" swimmers, but eventually decided against it and kept my poo-colored burgundy cap.

After packet pickup, I got a quick driving tour of Dartmouth, and we stopped for slices of pizza to get us through until dinner.  At the hotel, I made Joe bring my bike up to the room because I was NOT going to leave Rosie out in the parking lot all alone.  After a nap, it was time to head to West Leb for pasta dinner.

Pre-race carbs in West Leb

Carb closeup

Cherry lemonade (aka fancy sugar water)

After dinner, we did some quick errands to pick up supplies -- including an amazing cookie and brownie from Everything But Anchovies, which were clearly necessary.  And then as usual I spent way too much time checking and rechecking all my gear before going to bed.  Nerves were getting to me so I didn't sleep very well, but I managed to get in a few solid hours before waking up at a time that started with a 5 for the first time in quite a while.  

New two-piece tri kit

Tri shoes

Transition bucket ready to go

Swim:
On race morning, Joe (aka the pit crew) and I got to transition just in time of the pre-race briefing.  I set out my gear and started to get on my wet suit while I listened to the briefing, then made a quick run to the port-a-potty line before heading to the swim start.  I was starting in the second wave of the olympic race, which meant I had to wait about half an hour for the half racers to get through the first lap of their swim.  There was plenty of room to warm up off to the side of the course, which was very, very nice.

Oddly enough, the shorter race went around the farther buoys

I was really nervous about the fact that the younger age-group men were starting 4 min BEHIND my wave, so I decided to stay well to the outside of the course to avoid getting swum over.  I took the start very slow, mixing single-sided breathing with a lot of breaststroke on the way out.  This, combined with the warmup, kept me from getting too out of breath and panicking.  The men did, of course, catch me as I fell off most of the swimmers in my wave, but there wasn't too much contact.  By the time I made the turn to swim back to shore, I was really settling in and swam pretty much the entire way back using my normal bilateral breathing.  My sighting wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either.  All in all a BIG improvement from my first open water swim in Onset.

Wetsuit run

Some flooding in the days before the race resulted in a slight course change that shortened the run from the swim back to transition, which was just fine by me.  In T1 struggled with the wetsuit a bit more this time, mostly because the timing chip was bigger and the leg got stuck on it.  I was quite pleased with my decision to use a bucket as both gear storage and a transition seat.  I also knew that I had been out in the water for around 40 min, and had a decently long bike ahead of me, so I took the time to unwrap a Stinger waffle and put a pack of shotbloks in my pocket.

Darn you, timing chip!

Bike:
I did not, however, want to waste much time actually eating the waffle, so I basically stuffed the whole thing in my mouth as I walked the bike out.  This resulted in some fairly hilarious photos.

Chipmunk with a bike

I thought the bike course was challenging, with one serious 2.7 mile climb in second half followed by a 1 mile descent, and plenty of little rollers before and after.  The climb destroyed me.  It started right as we came out of the covered bridge with a very, very steep segment.  I panicked and got off my bike to walk first bit.  Of course this screwed up my right cleat, which refused to clip back in for about the first mile of the climb.  But I slowly, slowly made it to the top.  Before the race, I was almost more worried about the descent, since I don't like riding at high speeds and we had been warned about rough road at the bottom of the hill.  But about halfway up the hill I decided quick death in a crash would be preferably to a slow one from climbing-induced heart explosion.  I let myself max out at 34 mph while the road was still good, and then started to put on the brakes.  This was the point where two of the elite competitors in the half (doing two laps of the bike course) caught me, and went FLYING past me.

That climb was no joke

So happy the hill is behind me

After the major climb and descent, the second smaller climb wasn't too bad, and the rest of the ride was fairly uneventful.  T2 went decently well, aside from the bike racked way too close to my spot.  I had stopped a couple times to drink water on the bike course (someday I will learn to drink while I ride!) but it was getting hot so I took the time to drink a bit more.  I also took the shotbloks from my pocket and got them opened up to eat as soon as I got on the road.

Run:
The run was ROUGH.  It was hot (maybe mid 80s?) at this point, with very few clouds in the sky and almost no breeze.  The course didn't offer much shade and had plenty of very small hills.  I don't think I've ever seen so many competitors at apparently widely varying fitness levels walking during a 10K!  I could tell that my heart rate was up and my stomach wasn't processing fluids very quickly, so I took plenty of walk breaks.  I also made a quick pit-stop at the 2 mile water station, since I'd had to pee since about the time I got out of the water.

Run out

I was quite happy to finally hit the 5K turnaround, and felt very, very bad for the half competitors who had to keep going down the road.  I'm not used to running with no headphones and no road-race type crowds, so I entertained myself by cheering for the runners going the other way on the out-and-back course.  Mile 4 felt unbelievably long, but eventually I made it back to the relatively shady stretch of road near transition and saw Joe waiting for me, camera ready.  He ran me a few hundred feet into the last turn where the course went off-road to the finish.  There was an older guy in front of me and I had a brief internal debate about whether to kick past him in the (quite long) chute.  After a few seconds of hesitation, I decided to go for it.  I crossed the finish line just a few minutes before the winner of the half did (although he had started half an hour earlier).

This picture gives the impression there was plenty of shade.  There was not.

Results:
After finishing, I was thrilled with my water bottle and cold towel.  After a quick photo shoot, I grabbed my free plate of post-race bbq.  It was delicious, but I of course forgot to take a picture.

Was not quite ready for my closeup

That's better!

And one more, just for fun

Swim:      37:46

T1:             5:03

Bike:      1:57:01

T2:             2:29

Run:       1:10:23

Total:     3:52:40

I may have placed last in my division (out of 11), but I was still pretty happy with my splits.  I was a little disappointed with the 10K time, but actually placed better there (9th) than the swim (10th) or the bike (11th).

Post-Race:

After the race, we headed back toward Hanover.  On the way, we stopped at a little general store that Joe loved when he lived there.  My post-race reward was an awesome tshirt, a Gatorade, and a cookie (which I held on to for future cookie-related emergencies).

"If we don't have it, you don't need it!"

Back in Hanover, we went to Murphy's, where I had a very solid cheeseburger and fries for post-race lunch #2.  I held-off on ordering beer, though, since I figured that would have me asleep on the floor in minutes.  This was also the point where I started to realize that perhaps my back and shoulders were just the tiniest bit sunburned.

Post-race lunch (#2)

After lunch, the pit-crew and I were both in desperate need of a nap.  Fortunately the Red Sox were playing a day game, because IMHO, no nap is quite as good as one on a sunny afternoon with baseball on in the background.  And a cookie close at hand.  Of course, before I could nap, I had to rinse out my wetsuit and clean myself up, which seemed to take forever.  This was the point where I confirmed that my shoulders and back were actually quite sunburned, leaving a perfect white outline of my racerback tri-top.  The pit crew found this hilarious.

After napping, it was time for beer and more food, so we ventured back to Hanover.  After a beer at Salt Hill Pub (my first Switchback -- awesome), we headed to Molly's for dinner.  I had some very good buffalo chicken tenders with fries.  And another beer.

Post-race dinner

Saw this at Molly's.  Seemed fitting.

We went in search of post-dinner ice cream, but were disappointed to find that Hanover no longer has a Ben & Jerry's.  Ladies and gentlemen, situations like this are why you keep a cookie/brownie stockpile handy.

Monday morning, it was sadly time to drive back home (although I was quite excited about getting to see Klaus).  On our way out, we stopped at Lou's for doughnuts.  This might have been the best chocolate frosted doughnut I've ever had.

Doughnut from Lou's

Back at home I grabbed a veggie burrito from Chipotle to continue my "refueling" and picked up Klaus, who apparently had a very good time with his new friends.  I was sore and tired from the weekend, but at least had one Upper Valley treat left to end my day.

Brownie sundae made with leftover EBA brownie

The final verdict: the whole Trifest weekend trip was one of the best "impulse purchases" I've ever made!

Lessons Learned:

• Pre-swim warmup is absolutely, 100% worth it
• It is possible to use a port-a-potty even after you're half in your wetsuit
• Two-piece tri kit is a good call for anything longer than a sprint
• I must learn to drink on the bike
• Heat happens
• I need to extend my pit crew's contract.  I was only hiring him on a short-term basis until he proved Escape wasn't a fluke, but this race convinced me that I definitely do have the best pit crew ever.  Negotiations for Racine have concluded successfully.